A few weeks ago a silver Gilliam showed up for auction. Not only was it a Gilliam, but it was a Gilliam tight, L-R, the rarest of the 3 Gilliam variations.
Close inspection of the picture provided showed several notches on the front rim of the coin and something seemed un-natural about the bright color of the coin.
I made contact with the owner of the coin and she sent it to me for verification. Below are some close up photos I took of he coin. While the coin itself seems to be authentic, close inspection shows that in fact it is a navy blue Gilliam tight L-R that has been recently spray painted silver. I can actually see some of he navy blue color showing in the 3rd notch (near the AM in GilliAM..
The back of the coin also shows a partial finger print that could have been formed by picking up the coin by the edge while it was still tacky (right side of Dodgers). So unfortunately, for the owner, I think this is a fake. I informed the owner, who I don't think was responsible for this fake, since she would not have sent it to me for authentication if she was trying to pull a fast one on potential buyers.
Since this coin would have probably sold for over $1000 if real, it is an example for all of us that we better be careful when we are contemplating bidding such rare colored coins !
